Letters to the Editor: Sidewalk traffic is crucial

An artist rendering released by NASA shows the NASA rover Opportunity on the surface of Mars.

Photo: Associated Press/NASA

Regarding “Proposed cafeteria ban not to everyone’s taste” (Bay Area, Aug. 1): Judging from the numerous, and often glib, negative responses to Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s proposed ban on company cafeterias in office buildings, I must assume that many people are unaware of a real problem. When developers seek approvals for new projects, whether they be office, condo or apartment buildings, the planning department in virtually all communities require ground floor retail as a means of activating sidewalks.

However, with the rise of internet shopping, developers are finding it harder and harder to fill that retail space. I’m sure that most readers have noticed the increasing amount of vacant retail space throughout the city. Getting more people out on the streets for lunch and running errands increases the viability of the surrounding retail spaces. However, I would even go one step further than Peskin’s proposal and require that residential projects be required to place their laundry facilities and gyms on the ground floor and make them accessible to the general public. Quite often, just having one or two active retail spaces helps create demand for adjacent spaces. Sidewalk traffic is essential to all retail, and getting more people out at lunchtime can’t hurt!

Joseph Chance, Emeryville

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Don’t colonize Mars

Regarding “Martians — how they fell and then rose” (Aug. 3): I hope that mankind doesn’t colonize Mars. After all, our stewardship of planet Earth has been disastrous, particularly since the Industrial Age. Science and medicine have eradicated certain diseases and extended the human life span, but we have also polluted our environment, plundered our natural resources and hastened our own destruction through the development of nuclear weapons and the advent of global warming. Rather than planning for a distant future that might involve colonizing Mars, shouldn’t we try to ameliorate our present-day problems here on Earth?

Dorothy Van Horne, San Francisco

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Cafeteria overreach

Look, I’m a foam-spewing progressive and thus just live for regulating business, but when I look at the proposed ban on company cafeterias, I recoil in horror at the overreach. Sometimes, even the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce gets something right.

Matte Gray, San Francisco

Election meddling

Regarding “Facebook deals with a maturing, crafty adversary” (Business, Aug. 3): It is obvious that those utilizing Facebook to influence current elections are taking a similar approach as in 2016 to alienate progressive voters from the electoral process. If the Bernie or Bust and Black Lives Matter folks, as well as ardent feminists, Latinos, and youths, had all voted in 2016 for the highly experienced yet moderate Hillary Clinton, we most likely would not have elected the most unqualified and dangerous president in history. Don’t be fooled, progressive voters! Those meddling in our elections and Republicans want nothing more than for progressives like you and me not to vote for moderate candidates.

Jennifer Sparks, Sacramento

Learn from history

Regarding “Young candidate’s fiery fundraisers” (Bay Area, Aug. 2): I see that Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the new darling of progressives. Well, in the last presidential election, Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders played former Sen. Eugene McCarthy to Hillary Clinton’s former Vice President Hubert Humphrey in the Democratic Party’s downfall. Now, will progressives push that party farther to the left so that they nominate someone akin to former Sen. George McGovern in 2020? Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.